A MODEL FOR CHURCH RESTORATION -II (Restoring God's Image in Man) 2 Chronicles 29:1-19

In 1972 an axe wielding maniac attacked the famous Michelangelo’s beautiful sculpture The Pieta in St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome. He smashed the nose and breaking the hand of Madonna.[1] In 1975 a Dutch schoolmaster claiming to be on a divine mission made several deep slashes in the world famous painting of Rembrandt called “The Night watch.” He was never tried but committed to a mental asylum, where he later committed suicide.[2] Two cherished works of art were severely damaged. But what did officials do? Throw them out and forget about them? Absolutely not! Using the best experts, who worked with the utmost care and precision, they made every effort to restore these treasures to their original form. It took four years to restore Rembrandt’s painting and The Pieta was also eventually restored. Similarly, you and I are the most precious and priceless creation of God. But the devil has vandalized the image of God in us through sin. God’s original purpose in creating us has been distorted. But God in his great love for us sent his son Jesus Christ to restore us back to Himself.

In recent years there has been a lot of talk about “Taking our country back” but what no one seems to be asking is back to where or back to what? Long ago there was a king named Hezekiah was disturbed by the sad state of the nation of Judah especially the temple or the house of worship. How disturbed are we by the decaying morals of our nation and the lukewarm state of churches in our time? As we know both, nations and churches are made up of people; if we want to see them restored then people must be restored first back to God’s design, order and purpose. We read A model of Church restoration in 2 Chronicles 29-31.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

When we closely look into the history of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament we will discover a pattern. There were good as well as bad kings that ruled the nation at different times. Under a good king the nation thrived but under a bad king it went bankrupt. When another good king came into power he had to undo all the bad things the previous administration had done. Bad kings brought disgrace to God’s name through their idolatry therefore subjected the nation to God’s wrath and punishment. On the contrary good kings honored God’s name by walking righteously, in humility before God as a result God not only blessed them but the nation as well.

Some time during 735 B.C a king named Ahaz ruled Judah. He was a bad king. He did certain unspeakable things. He burned incense on the high places, on the hills and under every green tree (2 Chro 28:4). He made ungodly alliances with the nations that were prohibited by God. In addition to all these abominations he “closed the doors of the house of the LORD, and made altars for himself in every corner of Jerusalem. In other words he became a god in his own eyes. What Ahaz did indeed provoked God to anger and the wrath of the LORD was against Judah and Jerusalem. God made them an object of terror of horror.

Let me bring this into our context. Can you imagine what our country would look like, if all of a sudden the government has decided to shut down all the churches, synagogues, including house churches, and passed a bill that curbs our freedom to worship and practice our faith? Do you think that would provoke God to anger? Of course it would! In recent times we’ve become a target for terror of horror. Could it be that we have turned our backs on God, driven God out of our schools and public life and began to offer sacrifices to other gods? Whenever a nation turns its back against God; He may tolerate it for a while but not forever; He will certainly brings his wrath and vengeance upon that nation because he does not share his glory with others.

Coming back to our text; after Ahaz died, his son Hezekiah became king at age twenty five and ruled for twenty nine years. He did right in the sight of God. It was recorded that “after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, or among those who were before him.”(2 Kings 18: 5-6) What a contrast? What distinguished king Hezekiah from the other Kings? It is said, that “He trusted in the LORD the God of Israel, and he clung to the LORD and did not depart from following Him while keeping His commandments. We will be looking into five areas of restoration that King Hezekiah under took and how we can apply them to our personal as well as Church Restoration. The five areas are: The temple; the temple worship, the Passover, the tithes & offerings and the vision. Today our focus is on: “The Temple Restoration”

I. TEMPLE RESTORATION: (2 Chro 29:1-19)

Before we look into temple restoration let me explain what restoration means. It means the act of restoring; renewal, revival or reestablishment. It means a return of something to a former, original, normal or unimpaired condition. So, temple restoration here means, rediscovering or reinstituting God’s original intent, design and purpose for that temple. What applies here for God’s temple also applies for the individual believers.

Keeping this in mind let’s look at the restoration that Hezekiah brought about in a time when the nations of Israel and Judah were in crisis. This is the election season, we often hear the presidential candidates rhetoric which goes somewhat like this, “from day one in the office I will repeal or reform the bill that was passed by the previous administration” But little do they know how hard it is to bring reforms about in the white house. Hezekiah, from the time he became the king undertook the restoration of the temple. If you remember; the last thing his father Ahaz did was to shut down the doors to the temple in Jerusalem. One of the first things Hezekiah did was to open the doors of the temple so that the restoration of the temple could begin.

Though he had opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them, there was a problem, who could be bold enough to go into the temple and carry on the work of cleansing? If you remember only the priests and the Levites were eligible to perform various services in the temple. So Hezekiah called them and told them to consecrate themselves before they would go in and clean the temple. Accordingly the Levites took up the job, went in and cleansed every unclean thing that was found in the temple. They came back to King Hezekiah and said, “we have cleansed the whole house of the LORD, the altar of burnt offering with all of its utensils, and the table of show bread with all of its utensils.” It was a total cleansing which took sixteen days to bring the temple back to its original shape. In the end the temple was fully restored.

Hundreds of years later we see another type of cleansing in the temple in Jerusalem, this time it was Jesus who took up the job of cleansing. Do you remember how upset Jesus was when he saw men selling cattle, sheep, and doves and others sitting at tables exchanging money? Why was he so angry at them for selling? He was not angry at them because they were selling those items; but because they were selling them in the outer courts of the temple itself, the one place where Gentiles could come to pray. So he took a whip and drove all from the temple area, both cattle and sheep and scattered the coins of the money changers and over turned their tables and he said, “Get those out of here! How dare you turn my father’s house into a market?

What does Hezekiah’s restoring the temple and years later Jesus’ cleansing the temple in Jerusalem got to do with us today? I believe it’s got a lot to do with us. These two symbolic cleansing represent the much needed cleansing of individual believers as well as Churches at large. God wants to restore His divine image back to man order back to our churches. He wants to drive out every form of evil from our churches.

How is God cleansing the Church; which is his bride today? We read in I Cor 3:16, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. Listen carefully, when Paul wrote, he was addressing the believers as the temple of the Holy Spirit and not the un-generated people. It is us who gave our lives to the LORD and accepted his forgiveness who are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

If you are a child of God but for some reason you are still continuing to live in sin before it is too late you must repent and ask God to forgive and cleanse you. The church of Jesus Christ is not a building but a community of believers. God is passionate about you as He was with his temple in Jerusalem. He doesn't want you to destroy yourself by indulging in sin. He wants to restore you and give you back the worth and dignity the enemy had stolen.

As the call went forth from king Hezekiah to the Levites to consecrate themselves, for the past three and half years I’ve been calling the people in this Church to come back to God and follow the basic teachings of Christianity. All my preaching and service reflects that call.

As King Hezekiah made a covenant in his heart to follow God and began to restore the temple, my prayer is that you too will open up your closed heart once again to the LORD by asking him to come into your heart to cleanse you. I sincerely believe, when we return to God in repentance and in humility God will restore his image back in us and the glory of God will fill not only our lives but this Church once again, and then truly this place will be called a house of prayer for all nations.

The world and our community is yet to see what a church full of restored, and transformed people can do by the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells in them. Let the power of God come in and change you from the inside out. Amen!

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[1] Rome By Inc. Let's Go, Matthew W. Mahan, Vedran Lekic, Michael Squire, Elizabeth Thrall

[2]http://articles.latimes.com/1990-04-06/news/mn-973_1_night-watch

BOLD STEPS OF FAITH (Hebrews 11:1-7)

In an article entitled God Lite, theologian James R. Edwards traces how “The more we obey God, the more real God becomes to us and the greater our love grows. And the more we love God, the more we become like God. It is like a good marriage: People who love their spouses want to please them; and if they do not want to please their spouses, they can hardly talk of loving them. Edwards then shows the way in which obedience is not a penalty levied on faith. It is the strength of faith. The Bible absolutely will not separate faith and obedience, as though obedience were some kind of inheritance tax that God levies on the free gift of salvation. God cannot separate them and still offer salvation. There is something about love that is no longer love apart from obedience. Dietrich Bonhoeffer kept saying this in The Cost of Discipleship: 'Only those who obey can believe, and only those who believe can obey.[1]

It is true that God doesn’t separate “faith and obedience” A coin has two sides, in the same way obedience is the other side of faith. Both faith and obedience go hand in hand, one can not exist without the other. Last week we looked at two main components one is obedience and other is faith without which God would not have blessed Abraham. We focused a lot on Abraham’s unwavering faith in God and touched only a little on the other very important component of obedience. Today we will learn about what faith is not? What faith is? How can we grow faith and how faith demands obedience, and also look at a few examples where people took bold steps of faith and experienced rewards of their faith through obedience.

All the heroes of faith that we read about in Hebrews 11^th chapter not only had faith but demonstrated their belief in God by taking bold steps of faith. They were commended and rewarded for their faith and obedience. Let’s look at Hebrews 11:1-7.

I. UNDERSTANDING BIBLICAL FAITH

What is faith and how do we grow in it? Is faith squeezing your eyes shut and believing with everything in you that Santa Claus and the tooth fairy is real? I know I may be upsetting some by saying this but no matter how hard you believe Santa Claus will never be real. On the other hand God is real and he exists whether or not you believe in Him. His existence and power does not depend on how much faith we have. What is biblical faith and how do we understand it?

I deliberately said, “Biblical Faith” because people can have faith in any one and any thing, including their dogs but that won’t get them anywhere. It would be helpful to know what biblical faith is not in order to understand what it really is. Loren Cunningham the author of Daring to live on the edge explains, “The faith of the Bible is not wishful thinking, it’s not based on wanting your selfish desires so badly that you somehow get “faith” and get them. Neither is it some concentration of your mental or spiritual powers to get something you want.” It is not a blind leap of faith as Soren Kierkegaard popularized. If you do a blind jump you will fall and break your legs. It is not even “positive thinking, or altering your behavior” as some councilors suggest, though they may be helpful to overcome certain chronic patterns and conditions.

II. WHAT IS BIBLICAL FAITH?

The Bible says faith is, “Being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”(Heb 11:1). Faith is the substance of what we hope for and the conviction of what we do not see. Buell Kazee the famous country singer turned pastor said, “Faith is not trusting God to get something; faith is trusting God when there seems to be nothing left. When everything is gone with no hope of restoration and when there is nothing on which to base your faith; then can you still trust God?[2] Biblical faith is taking God at his word. Believing that He will never fail us.

The biblical faith is completely letting ourselves go into the safest and the most powerful hands of God. Let me illustrate, “This morning, said the minister, I'm going to speak on the relationship between fact and faith. It is a fact that you are sitting here in the sanctuary. It is also a fact that I am standing here speaking. But it is faith that makes me believe that you might be listening to what I have to say. A man took his first plane ride, reluctantly. He didn't want to go at all, but was finally persuaded to try it. Fearful, he got in the plane. The pilot took off, circled the field and returned safely. Someone asked the uneasy rider, well, now that wasn't so bad, was it? How did you like it? The man replied, I'll tell you this much. I never did put my full weight down in that thing! Faith means putting our full weight down on God. Faith is not just believing that God exists. It is actually anchoring ourselves to that God.[3] God commends us for this faith.

III. HOW DOES FAITH GROW?

Faith doesn’t depend on what you say are think but it depends on what God has to say. According to Romans 10:17, “Faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” Faith is based on what God has to say to you personally through His written word (logos). That is why it is so important that we take a daily dose of vitamin “F” which is faith by reading and meditating and waiting to hear what God is saying to us while making crucial decisions pertaining to important matters.

I can not tell how many times God spoke to me through his word when I was making crucial decisions. Long time ago, God spoke to me through Ecclesiastes 1: 18, “For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief” I took this as God’s spoken word for me. As a result after my graduation I joined YWAM and went on to serve God full time. What applies for one may not apply for another, each one must get their direction from the Lord.

God speaks to us personally, as a family and corporately as a Church. Whatever he says never contradicts his written word. If some one says, “God told me to divorce my wife and marry my secretary.” Obviously that is not from God because the scripture says, “God hates divorce” if he hates divorce then why would he encourage people to do it? When we take certain steps thinking that God spoke to us, without checking with the scripture, we can move in presumption which can not only hurts us but also those who love us and depend on us.

IV. HOW DOES FAITH WORK?

Biblical faith requires action on your part. It is not passive. The apostle James calls passivity a dead faith. In James 2:17, 21-22 we read, “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead… Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together. Whenever we read words like, “hear” or “listen” especially when they are coming from God or his prophets or the apostles they always demanded action. In our text we read, by faith Able offered a better sacrifice, Enoch walked with God and Noah built an ark, these all are actions. Christ went to an extent saying the foolish will hear his word but never take any action but the wise will hear and act upon them. He encouraged his disciples and followers not just to be hearers but the doers of His word.

How does this workout practically? Loren Cunningham offers three simple principles to remember when we live by faith. They are: “Knowing, Obeying, and Trusting,” Let me explain, First of all before any thing we need to know what God wants us to do (based on His word).Secondly, we must obey whatever He shows us to do, and thirdly we trust Him to do what we can not do, in His way and in His time.” The whole chapter of Hebrew eleven is all about the ordinary men and women who coupled their faith with bold steps of action and they were commended not only for their faith but more so for their obedience to God’s revealed will.

V. BOLD STEPS OF FAITH

The Bible has a lot of stories of those who took bold steps of faith. I would like to recall two familiar stories. One is of an army officer with an incurable decease and the other one is of a feeble and frightened army facing the impenetrable walls of their enemy’s city. Both these stories emphasize the importance of adding bold steps to our faith. Remember the story of the army officer named Naaman found in 2 Kings 5?

Naaman was the captain of the army of the king of Aram. He was a valiant warrior but he was a leper. Advised by a Jewish servant girl he goes to Elisha for healing. Elisha sends a message saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh shall be restored to you and you shall be clean.” In a rage Naaman goes back to his country thinking that the rivers in his country were much better than the dirty Jordan river. This time the servants urged him to return to Samaria and obey the instructions of Elisha. So he comes back and dips himself one time, nothing happened, second time, third time and a sixth time nothing happened but when he dipped himself on the seventh time a great miracle happened, according to the word of Elisha, his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean.

In the other story of the walls of Jericho, the Israelite army marched six days silently around the city and on the seventh day they marched seven times. Upon the command of Joshua they blew the trumpet and shouted, the powerful walls of Jericho came tumbling down as a pack of cards. What lessons can we learn from these stories? We are to swallow our human pride, and trust that God could make us well.

The principles in both these stories are that our faith must be active, and as we take the bold steps of faith and obey God’s instructions fully. He will do the impossible. How can we take bold steps of faith in a highly skeptic and pluralistic world? What does living by faith look like in a 9 to 5 world? May I give you a few practical suggestions which might help you to take bold steps in your journey of faith? Firstly, be absolutely convinced that God exists, that He is Almighty and he rewards those who earnestly seek Him. He knows the plans he has for you. His plans are for your welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.(Jeremiah 29:11),

Secondly, Be affirmed in the fact that he is a good and loving father and wants to give the best for his children. Does it mean that everything will always go well for us? Not necessarily! According to Romans 8:28, “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Be affirmed that God is for you and not against you. Thirdly, be continually encouraged in your faith, especially when things get tough and you feel like quitting. Be encouraged in the fact that you can rely on His promises, for no mater how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”

Finally as you take bold steps in your journey of faith be committed to give him praise. “Though the cherry trees don't blossom and the strawberries don't ripen, Though the apples are worm-eaten and the wheat fields stunted, Though the sheep pens are sheepless and the cattle barns empty, I'm singing joyful praise to God. I'm turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God. Counting on God's Rule to prevail, I take heart and gain strength. I run like a deer. I feel like I'm king of the mountain!(Habakkuk 3:17, The Message)

Remember, your father in heaven owns the cattle on a thousand hills and is able to take care of all your needs so without doubt and anxiety by faith boldly journey on! Amen

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[1] Christianity Today, April 29, 1991, 30.

[2] Buell Kazee, Faith Is the Victory (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1983), 149.

[3] Hal Brady, 22 August 1993, Dallas, Texas.

Luck Vs Faith: (Genesis 22:1-14)

During the recent economic downturn, a lot of folks have been cutting back on things you know, eating out less, delaying the purchase of a car, may be even trying to downsize their home, if anyone will buy it. Some people are wisely cutting back on using credit cards and are vacationing at a local park rather than heading to an exotic destination. What Americans don't seem to be cutting back on, however, is the dream of striking it rich and doing it the easy way - easy, that is, if you're lucky. Amid hard times, people are no longer going to the bank for financial advice. Instead, they're heading to the corner store to grab a bunch of lottery tickets. Some go for a weekend trip to the Casinos. A 2009 report by USA Today indicated that more than half the states with lotteries saw an increase in sales during the peek of the recession. In 2010, the total revenue from state lotteries was up by $1 billion from the previous year. On the other hand critics worry about the adverse effects of Casinos and other gambling places. Sen. James Eldridge, who opposed the recent Casino Bill in MA “said casinos will negatively affect smaller communities with higher public safety costs, environmental problems and traffic congestion. He was also worried about "families that might otherwise go to a restaurant or a museum or a show (but) will spend their discretionary money at a casino."

It seems that in desperate times, more people are indeed relying on Lady Luck to be their financial adviser. "Someday somebody is going to win, and I hope it is me," said Albert Atwood of Nashville, who spends $100 weekly playing the Pick 5 and Lotto Plus. "I imagine that I would be a heap better off if I saved this money, but everybody has dreams." Do your math if you could save $100 per week how much you would have saved by now?

Unfortunately, many these days are cashing in on the desperation of people to get rich. Indeed, some cottage industries have popped up around helping people increase their luck. Take for example, the luckology.com Web site defines the term as "the ability to successfully attract good luck and turn bad luck into good luck over and over again." In a pragmatic society I wonder how many people really believe in luck? Interestingly many believe in lucky charms like “Lucky Squirrel scratcher” or the Lucky coin and try their luck out. I pity these people.

Long ago there was a distinguished couple named Abraham and Sarah; they had acquired great wealth and prestige. Though they had great wealth and had succeeded in the eyes of their contemporaries. Yet they were a desperate couple, they were childless, they dreamed of holding a son in their arms. In their desperation did they turn to lady luck or hold on to God who promised them a son? In the 21^st Century honestly, can you really depend on luck to bail you out? I would like to briefly talk about luck vs faith and look at Abraham who may have been considered lucky by himself and others but in the end we will find out what made Abraham truly wealthy. First let’s talk about luck.

II. LUCKY PHILOSOPHY HAS BEEN AROUND A LONG TIME:

Luckology is really just another retread of a philosophy that's been around nearly as long as humanity. Ancient peoples assumed the world was a rather random place and that forces beyond their control gave them good or bad luck in arbitrary ways. Pantheistic religions believed the gods used fortune and misfortune to manipulate human lives; thus, it was best to please the gods who might give you fortune and avoid ticking off the ones who could give you a run of bad luck. In the Roman Pantheon, for example, a cult formed around the goddess Fortuna. Paying attention to the gods of fortune or luck, whether their altars are in a casino or at the counter of a convenience store, is what Wayne Oates calls a "secular religion."

Oates defines, luck in his book, Luck: A Secular Religion, as "confidence - that is, faith - in fate, in chance, in cleverness, in figuring out probabilities. ... All are focused upon the immediate time situation, upon the here and now. All are distinctly dependent upon human existence apart from any fellowship with or interdependence on the supernatural or the everlasting realities of life." Two weeks ago we talked about man made idols; luck is, as the old saying goes, "the idol of the idle." How can Christians be different from those who worship the idol of luck in the secular world? How did Abraham maintain his faith in a highly pluralistic World? Was Abraham lucky or was he a man of faith?

III. WAS ABRAHAM LUCKY?

When we look at Abraham’s life one thing we can tell is that he was a very wealthy man. He was like the Bill Gates of his time. Abraham could have been one who certainly considered himself to be really lucky. He was called of God from a family who were making idols, given a unique blessing from God, that in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed.” Not only him but people around him also may have considered Abraham to be super lucky, so they said you are a “mighty prince” Or “prince of God” (Gen 23:6) Abraham’s Luckology would seem to have been working pretty well, especially given the fact that he was blessed with a child at age hundred, as Paul put it in Romans 4:19, he was “as good as dead” and his wife Sarah’s womb was dead too.” In spite of all that in the end this couple was blessed with a promised son.

Was he Lucky? We will see in the story God will teach Abraham, however that Luck had nothing to do with his prosperity or the birth of the promised son Isaac. What was behind all these blessings in Abraham’s life? We learn from the story that after some time God tested Abrham, he asked him to sacrifice his only promised son Isaac? How did that impact Abraham?

III. ABRAHAM’S SHATTERED DREAM: (Gen 22:1-2)

God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham! And he said, Here I am.” And he said, “Take now your son, your only son whom you love, Isaac and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I tell you.” If God were to come to you and say, “I want you to give up your dream child, give away your dream car, or your dream job” how would you respond? Firstly, you may rebuke the devil thinking that it was not from God. Secondly, you might wonder how God could ever ask you to give up something that is very precious to you?

God’s unusual request could have shattered Abraham’s dream, but without any questions as we read in the text, “He rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and went to the place which God told him. The story of Abraham and Isaac will always be an important one. It is similar to the love that God has shows in sacrificing His only Son for us. What made Abraham to respond in this amazing way? This story brings out two main component one is obedience, the other is faith without which God would not have blessed Abraham. Let’s look at Abraham’s unwavering faith.

IV. ABRAHAM’S UNWAVERING FAITH

Down through the centuries when it comes to faith people always refer to Abraham not because his name has the first two English alphabets but because of his unwavering faith. How did that faith work out in his life? In Hebrew 11^th chapter we read the names of several heroes, in “The hall of faith” and Abraham’s name shows up in the hall of faith. What do we know about Abraham’s unwavering faith? By faith Abraham when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went even though he did not know where he was going.”(Heb 11:8).

For the modern mind this doesn’t make any sense, on the contrary this sounds rather absurd! In the narrative, on two occasions Abraham exhibited unwavering faith in God’s promise and his provision. In vs 5, “He said to his servants ‘Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there’. “We will worship and then we will come back to you.” Do you notice the word “we” twice in this verse? This tells me somehow Abraham was convinced that God would not take his only son away from him because if he did, then God would not be true to his promise. In vs 7-8, in reply to Isaac’s question, “where is the lamb?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering son.” By that declaration Abraham exhibited his unwavering faith in a sovereign God who is able to provide.

Not knowing where we are going; sounds scary and irresponsible in the beginning but that is why it is called a journey of faith. The scriptures are clear that “we do not walk by sight but by faith.” God often won’t give us the entire blue print of our journey if He did then instead of following him we would follow the blue print. So in his mercy he reveals his plan bit by bit as we trust and follow him step by step. As you go forward in faith things become clearer to you.

For Wilma and I our whole life in missions and leaving India for the USA was a lot like, “not knowing where we were going.” Was it scary? Was it hard? Did we feel like quitting at times? You better believe it. When we first announced our plans saying that the Lord was leading us out of YWAM and India several tried to discourage us with questions, such as: Where will you stay in Boston? How will you take care of your family? Why are you giving up everything you’ve worked so hard for? What if you are not accepted by the seminary? What if your visas are rejected? How are you going to provide for your children’s education? And so on. Our standard answer had always been, we don’t have all the answers now but God will make it clear when the time comes.

Even today we don’t have all the answers but we have absolute confidence in God. We may not know what the future holds for us but we do know who holds our future and we trust Him. Abraham believed in the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. It was not luck that made him the father of nations but his unwavering faith in God.

When we give our lives to Christ by faith we too become the heirs of Abraham. What can we learn from this man of faith? We can actually trust in the promises of God even in the adverse situations. We need to put our faith in the providence of God, not in luck. Faith in luck is a lonely faith, a fatalistic submission to chance. Faith in God's providence, however, is faith in a relationship with One who promises to supply what we need, when we need it, "according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).

If luck is all about the individual pursuit of everything we think we want, then providence is about accepting the promise that God supplies everything we need - and not just for us, but for all God's people. While luck seeks to obtain, providence invites us to share. Luck buys lottery tickets. Faith is invested in a loving community. Abraham did not believe in luck, since we are the heirs of Abraham we must stop pursuing luck, instead pursue Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith. Amen